Bishnupur, located in the Bankura District of West Bengal, is home to the unique terracotta temples of Bengal, made all the way back during the Malla Dynasty's reign, (Ruled Bankura from 7 CE to 18 CE). This region's famous temples were mostly built during the 1600-1750 range It was a popular tourist destination. To enjoy the beautiful temples of Bishnupur, my mother decided to take My Brother (Atharva) and I on a road trip to Bishnupur. We planned to leave on Christmas Eve, in the morning.In the build-up to this trip, I was terribly excited as I was going to go on a lengthy road trip after a time-span of nearly 2 years!
On Christmas Eve, 24th of December, at 5:25 a.m., we left the house in a bundled heap and tumbled into our car. We moved against the cold, drinking hot tea at the Russell Street Dhaba to keep us going. While going towards the Santraganchi Toll-Bridge, we got stuck in a seemingly never-ending line of traffic. Due to this traffic, our estimated car trip time of 3.5 hours became 5! During this part of the trip, my Mother, Driver Ji and I struck up a conversation about the power grids, which transport electricity throughout our city. I was surprised to know that all the wires hanging above the streets are actually electricity - transporting wires and were not phone lines as i had originally thought they were.
I was ecstatic when our google maps announced this as it
would mean that our road trip would go on for longer than expected, and a road
trip was something I always enjoyed.
Closer to Bishnupur, we stopped for Breakfast at a roadside
joint called The Rajput Dhaba. Here, they served food on Cots with thick ropes
woven and intertwined through them that served as a seat to sit on. These khatiyas/machaans had a wooden
slab to keep the plates on and cushions were arranged to enhance
the comfort of the cots. Overall, the experience was a lot of fun and helped us
to stretch our legs and bask in the warm morning sun.
During this leg of the trip, my mother started to talk to me about bio-mass. She taught me about the substances that could be be used to create biomass pellets- a new and pollution-free, renewable energy fuel. She told me about the bio mass used to prepare it - Saalpatta, Rice Husks, and much much more, which are being wasted by farmers all over India, when the wastes could be used to make something Environment-friendly! We saw huge patches of land, all burned down by farmers. This killed the micro - organisms present in the soil, in turn degrading the quality of the land.
 |
| Burning of the land |
We also saw gud or jaggery being cooked upon the roads. We saw farmers climbing up palm trees, collecting palm sap, heating it in a big clay vat, and prepare delicious smelling jaggery. It was an interesting sight.
 |
| Making of Gud in Bankura (Photo - Courtesy of google) |
Nearing Bishnupur, we were enjoying the sights of endless fields
when we noticed a lot of crowd around what seemed like a jungle resort. We were intrigued and decided to follow the lead. And boy we are glad we did! On
entering the premises, we discovered the resort to be a full on package deal- complete with a beautiful flower festival, nursery, weekend haat, vacay bunglows (with machaans as swings in the garden)and finally, something which even Calcutta Zoo might not have [Wait for it…]their own mini ostrich and turkey farm!
There were turkeys being fattened up for the Christmas dinner perhaps, chicken and cows obviously, and a lake full of the mysterious desi mangur(catfish).
 |
| Turkeys fattened for the Christmas Pot |
It was the first time I would be seeing the Earth-shaking birds.
They stalked their enclosure, the male ostriches handling the patrol around the edges of the enclosure, and the
female ostriches huddled in the shade. Their bright orange eye stared
mercilessly and fearlessly into my own, and I was afraid to continuously look at them
lest they attack.
 |
| Ostrich in enclosure!! |
What wholesome entertainment, no?
I was somewhat sad to see the over fed turkeys though.
How my mom has a knack for finding obscure treasures, only god knows-
she found this super cool vintage ambassador turned convertible and surely enough made us sit in the open back for pictures (rolling the eyes).
 |
| Old Ambassador, turned into a convertible |
Her eyes go a bit mad if we don't comply. So for the sake of a pleasant remaining trip, we did what she said.
We looked around again at the flowers before setting off. We did not believe how hot it was in the hills. We reached Bishnupur about half an hour later.
After painstakingly crossing the narrow lanes built for the toto vehicles (battery operated autos), we finally reached the hotel we had planned to stay in. Unfortunately, we found that the hotel rooms were all either full or pre-booked (owing to the winter bododin / Christmas mela). After exploring the vicinity, we found that all of the other hotels too were fully booked. Now, we had only two options – Either to return to Kolkata on the same day after completing sightseeing, or to go to another city and stay in a hotel there.
Since same day return was quite out of the question for us, we convinced Mom to decide upon the latter. We were to spend the day in
Bishnupur, enjoying all the terracota temples there were, and in the evening, after seeing the Bishnupur
Mela, we would set off for Mukutmanipur avillage whose main highlight is the Kangsabati River Dam, which was a 2-hour-drive away.
We parked our car at an abandoned petrol station and started walking, hoping to find a place to lunch in. Again, we were faced by a problem. Bishnupur, being a Bengali town, was full of predominantly non-veg restaurants. We finally found a vegetarian sweet shop owner who made some hot Puri-Bhaji for us. They were mediocre in taste but we were grateful for the warmth they provided from within.
Upon finishing our lunch, we convinced a kind toto driver to
drive us around, show us all the monuments and tell us a bit about them. They
were the –
· Ras
Mancha
 |
| Rasa Mancha |
· Madan Mohan Temple
This was undoubtedly the most beautiful temple we saw. The carvings depicted scenes from the Mahabharata. It was truly breath-taking
 |
| Madan Mohan Temple |
 |
| Ekaratna Temple |
· Jore Bangla Temple
 |
| Jore Bangla Temple |
· Shyam Rai or Pancharatna Temple
 |
| Pancharatna Shyam Rai Temple |
· The Bishnupur Mela
Each of the above temples and occasions were unique in their
own, special way. After visiting all the temples, we headed back to our car,
enjoying the ice creams we had bought. I was feeling grateful for the luxury
that our car provided for us. We were able to come and go whenever we wanted,
and go wherever we wanted.
We set off towards Mukutmanipur on the dark and badly lit road.
During this part of the road trip, I was unable to even close my eyes since I
was petrified of the dark and spooky road in front of us. I was afraid that we
may encounter a sharp corner or suddenly crash into a car which might be coming
the opposite way. Full credit to our Driver Ji for getting us safely to our
destination. Time seemed to stretch on that dark and spooky road.
On reaching Mukutmanipur, we were surprised at how isolated the
resort seemed. We were about to look for other resorts in the middle of civilization when we suddenly noticed a
lot of families moving around and nearly 10 more cars parked in the driveway.
We eventually decided it was safe and checked into our room. We even asked the receptionist if it was safe to stay here, and he started laughing in reply. It was truly an excellent stay.
We requested the chef to cook some hot Maggi for us. Half an
hour later, full of hot Maggi, we went out to enjoy the ongoing Christmas
Bonfire. Music was going on as per request. It made us feel cheerful, warm, full, and content.
An hour later, excited for the day ahead, we fell asleep in our beds.
No comments:
Post a Comment